Today's Quick Word
Today’s Quick Word
Daniel 1:19-20 And the king [Nebuchadnezzar] spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. And in every […]
Daniel 1:19-20 And the king [Nebuchadnezzar] spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.
What happened to Daniel and his three friends (better known to us by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) during the Babylonian Captivity is a good example of the truth of Psalm 111:10 and Proverbs 1:7, 9:10 – “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge/wisdom”.
Contrary to what some parents might want to tell their little children, it wasn’t the actual vegetables these four young men ate that instilled in them ‘wisdom and understanding’ (verses 11-16), but the fact that their insistence on the consumption of only ‘water and vegetables’ was a clear demonstration of their ‘fear of the LORD ’!
It is good for us to keep before us this practical reminder of the true source of all wisdom and knowledge. This is especially so as we face the reality of where our own surrounding culture is heading – and not only ‘heading’, but being ‘set in concrete’ in our legislation, that will make ‘fearing the Lord’ much more costly than it has been in the past. For Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, it resulted in their being cast into a ‘burning, fiery furnace’ (3:8-23), and for Daniel, in being cast into a den of lions (Chapter 6)!
We have the added advantage of God’s reminder of Paul’s prayer in Colossians 2:2-3 “that [our] hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” May the power of Christ so fill us that we might always bear witness to our culture concerning the source of our wisdom and knowledge with the same courage, determination and resolve that inspired these four brave Jewish youths.
– Bruce Christian
